ROCKY GREEK

#koine #greek #greeknewtestament

Matthew 16:17 - 18 is further proof Jesus and some if not all of his disciples were bilingual in Greek and Aramaic or at least knew some Greek.

Now Simon Peter Bar Jonas had a first name that means He has heard in Hebrew and Aramaic but in the New Testament  he is also referred to as Peter / Petros and Cephas "rock". This could just be a translation of his Aramaic nickname but wait Jesus says

"and I to you say that you are ROCK and upon this rock I will build for me the assembly of people (for a religious or political purpose) and gates of underworld/death/ not they will overpower that (rock).

Note Matthew uses Petros not Cephas !

Some Koine experts think petra (feminine) meant big rock or rocky ledge.

Others think Peter was a short guy and there's a pun on peeble versus big rock but that pun only works if you know Greek!

So I'm thinking maybe both Jewish and Greek fishermen sailed on the Sea of Galilee and the reason he's Simon PETER is that he was known as "ROCK" to distinguish him from other Simons and ... oh no sh sound in Greek Greeks would have heard Shim'on or Shemayon as Simo(n) meaning flatfaced or snub nosed sometimes. Petro(s) the Rock was probably his preferred name. Maybe he just liked the sound of it?

Next week less linguistics and a bit more about the Son of man and other aspects of this section of Chapter 16.


 

EPILUSIS 2 Peter

EPILUSIS

2 Peter 1: 20

on interpreting prophecy and scripture

τοῦτο πρῶτον γινῶσκοντες

ὅτι πᾶσα προφητεία γραφῆς ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως οὐ γίνεται

this thing first knowing

that every prophecy of writing

of personal / private selfish implied loosening / solution not happening

Peter is about to tell about how to spot a false prophet ….

by prophecy of writing he means the Old testament prophets but many people have interpreted this as the Scriptures as a whole including the New Testament.

So why is this important? The next word is ἰδίας which is one of those Greek words you have to check the context of usage of for it can mean private or personal and usually with an implication of selfishness involved.

Some take this as meanng only mnisters and scholars should interpret scripture but others say it means not to interpet scripture to support your own personal views?

Note the use of ἐπιλύσις

Peter is talking about using scripture to look for solutions to problems or maybe condemning the sort of reading that looks for secret codes or those who claim their “loosening” of a verse is the word of God and then proceed to behave in away that shows their opinion.

Ἐπιλύσις means release loose solve explain and interpret.

How to assess interpretations. Peter gives us a guide.

False prophets and teachers disrupt religion deny jesus are greedy and make profit off their followers and they are self willed full of bravado speaking evil … judge them by their actions.

Think carefully about the Greek and English and be careful how you teach others.

And do read the whole of chapter 2 ?

This poster has an M.A. in Classical Greek and also blogs on Classical Greek culture and other related matters.